Perhaps you’ve been exposed to the same teaching as I have which goes something like this:

“When you receive Christ as your Lord & Savior, your relationship with God is restored forever, and no sin you commit can ever stand in the way of that relationship. However, sin DOES stand in the way of your FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD, and for this fellowship to be restored, confession of and repentance from sin is required.”

Sounds Spiritual. Sounds reasonable.

And it will put you on the wheel of performance based religion and into spiritual bondage quicker than a hot knife cutting through warm butter.

The simple fact is, when we examine this teaching from a New Covenant perspective, it comes crashing down. And this is good news.

As believers, as His children, God is just as present with us, just as close to us, and yes, just as intimate with us in the midst of our fears, flaws and failures as He is during our “good” days. This is the beauty of the New Covenant; that through the finished work of Christ and the reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within, both our relationship AND our fellowship has been restored, and sin does not change that.

This may be TOTALLY CONTRARY to what you have heard… what you have been taught, and contrary to what you currently believe to be true. I understand, for this does indeed fly in the face of most teaching coming from the pulpit on this matter. If you’re having difficulty wrapping your arms around this, let me share a generalized example to help bring some clarity.

Let’s say you’re going about your day, and you do something you shouldn’t have done. You’ve sinned. When we sin, the Holy Spirit is right there to guide us out of darkness and into the light. The scripture even speaks of the Holy Spirit being our guide, helper, comforter and teacher. It is He who speaks to our hearts right in the midst of these times, showing us where we’ve gone awry (without condemnation) and showing us the way we should go.

Friends, this IS INTIMACY! This IS FELLOWSHIP! God initiates with us right in the midst of our mess, apart from ANY contributing factor on our part.

Those who believe we must “confess and repent” in order to be restored to fellowship with God fail to realize that the believer repents FROM A PLACE OF RESTORATION AND FELLOWSHIP, NOT AS A MEANS TO RESTORATION AND FELLOWSHIP. He is the God of all grace, leading us by His Spirit and revealing His goodness to us, even in the midst of our fears, flaws and failures. And as the scripture says, it is this goodness of God that leads men to repentance.

I think one reason why many of us have difficulty grasping the New Covenant reality of God not withholding fellowship from us even in the midst of our ugliest moments is because of our typical experience in human relational dynamics. For instance, I’ve heard people over the years exclaim the following:

“If I sin… if I do something that upsets my wife, our fellowship has been disrupted; sin stands in the way. It affects her demeanor. I may start to get the “silent treatment” because she is angry. There’s an “elephant in the room,” so to speak. I may even be sleeping on the couch! And our fellowship cannot be restored unless I do something… unless I confess my sin and repent. Only then will she be intimate with me again. If this is how it works between husband and wife, surely this is how it works between God and His relationship with us, His bride!”

Honestly, on the surface, this sounds like a very compelling argument. But we must understand that God’s disposition towards us through the New Covenant transcends human relational dynamics. We cannot project upon our relationship with God those things we’ve found ourselves needing to do to maintain or restore our fellowship with man, whether it be a friend, a husband or a wife. Your husband or wife may draw back from you due to something you did or said, giving you the silent treatment, needing you to “do something” before he or she will relationally engage with you again. And by all means, the wise & loving thing to do would be to do what you can to mend the break! But God is not a man. He has no need. He has made us righteous through the blood of His Son. His disposition towards us is love and good will (not anger) through Christ’s all-sufficient finished work. He will never leave us or forsake us. He doesn’t count our sins against us, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and through the New Covenant relates to us purely on the level of grace rather than on the level of “performance and reward” which was indicative of the Old Covenant.

Repentance FOR restoration = Old Covenant order. Restoration resulting in repentance = New Covenant order. For the believer, repentance is the fruit of having been restored, not the means to being restored.

There’s a reason why the scripture says that the New Covenant is “a better covenant, established on better promises!”

After 24 years as a believer, having experienced the bondage of performance based religion as well as the freedom that Christ affords us through the New Covenant, I’m convinced that our all to common quest to experience restored or deeper “intimacy/fellowship with God” through our various spiritual calisthenics is nothing more than a work of the flesh, born out of the fact that we refuse to walk by faith…. faith in the totality of the finished work of Christ, our identity in Him, and the reality of the Holy Spirit within, who speaks to our hearts so that we may respond.

Responses

I agree with your observations…mostly because I share the experience of becoming unwound when I sinned during the early years of my relationship journey with our Lord. What I found to be a major contributor to this mindset of sin disrupting my fellowship was that I fell into the religious pit of “humanizing” God. You allude to this in your blog. While I realize there are instances within the scriptures where God uses humanistic traits and body parts to describe Himself or His actions I believe this was done so we humans could gain some understanding not because God is portraying Himself as a Super-Human. It is my observation that when most professed Christians humanize God they then relate with Him humanly. Most attach the behaviors of their parents to this humanized God. Thus there is the constant roller-coaster of pleasing and failing with the resulting sensations that God loves me when I don’t sin, God is angry and holding back when I sin. One of the saddest things I see in religious assemblies is the childish attempts to please God so He will like us behavior of the majority of professed Christians. Thus their focus is directed towards pleasing Daddy with singing, dancing, works, and regimental compliance. This mindset eventually leads to attempts to schmooze God, persuade God, buy God, on and on.

I was moved to re-read this post and respond with something that has been ignited in my inner being contemplation of scripture. I pray is blesses what has already been shared.

IF GOD IS FOR ME WHO CAN BE AGAINST ME

These words out of the Book of Romans are tremendous! I have meditated on these words and for the life of me I cannot explain how I passed through this pasture of the scriptures in the past and yet it is only now that they ignite my spirit. Is God “GOD!” or not? Why are you so down cast my soul? If I truly believe that God is for me how is it that my faith is not steel solid? So many times I slip into the pit of feeling God is against me. But here in His Word I am assured that God is never against me!
How can any Christian who truly understands God’s love and grace evidenced by the fact that He gave His only Son to save us think that this same God is against them? Here’s something to ponder; Christ was sacrificed 2000 years or more before most of us were born…”before” we sinned! Then on the other end of this is why, if God is for me, would I be worried about whoever, or whatever, appears to be against me? If God is “GOD!” then truthfully who can be against me? The truthful answer is NO ONE and NOTHING! No one or nothing can obstruct, hold back, prevent my blessings from God. If it appears as though someone or something is doing so it is because I allow it through unbelief that God is truly with me, for me, and loves me.
In scripture it is declared that God “longs” to be gracious! (Isaiah 30). I connect with this longing by faith. In the scriptures we are shown that Jesus could perform no miracles (extend no blessings) in His hometown due to their lack of faith. I challenge anyone to find anywhere in scripture where Jesus refused anyone their request who approached Him in faith. They all received the blessing they asked for. And Jesus clearly states that if you have seen Him you have seen the Father. If God is for me who can be against me? My blessings, my breakthrough are here now because if God is for me nothing or no one can prevent my receiving them. Hallelujah!!
In the scriptures we are told that as Jesus entered Jericho one day a blind man named Bar-Timaeus, upon hearing all the commotion and finding out it was because Jesus was arriving, began calling out to Jesus. Those around him began to admonish him to stop all the yelling but Timaeus shouted all the louder. Jesus hears Timaeus comes to him and heals him. Timaeus represents one who calls out to God in faith seeking a blessing. Those around him represent the pious-religious who view asking God for a blessing is an annoyance to God. These types discourage praying for a blessing, healing, or whatever. They preach being satisfied with salvation and be quiet. But in the story we find that those around Timaeus soon found out that Christ was for him. They stepped out of the way and Timaeus’s blessing was not prevented by those against him.
Now, I have listened to some sharing of others on the title scriptures above. Some resort to the humanistic compulsion to add conditions they view from their observations of the scriptures preceding the cited scriptures. I have to ask, “What conditions do the scriptures say Timaeus did before receiving his request? Did he follow all the commandments? Did he express a sincere love for God? Did he even repent of any sins? I have seen nothing in the scriptures that indicates that he did any of these things…yet he got his request! Why? Probably for the same reason the woman with the issue of blood received hers. Jesus told her that her “FAITH” was the reason. I am not advocating for ignoring sin in our lives. I am just pointing out that Jesus, Who represents God, set no preconditions other than faith. Ironically it is when you realize this you start sinning less and less. If God is for me who or what can be against me? Why is this not meditated on by all professed Christians? This area of scripture is the perfect counsel for those who feel God is angry with them. When I start to have thoughts arising in my mind indicating that God is against me or I cannot do this or that I speak this promise into my inner being and I am revived.
Here is another thing to consider. Our carnal mind will never accept or believe in the promises of God that is why we must meditate in our heart, our inner being. This is the secret place Jesus spoke of when He spoke on praying. I went through a long struggle with accepting what the scriptures declare because I did all my pondering or meditating in my carnal mind. This is easy to test. All you have to do is think on; “If God is for me who or what can be against me?”. Immediately your carnal mind will raise up doubts. Doubts about what God really meant, doubts about anyone having the ability to have God being for them. But when you bring those words into your inner being you experience peace within because your inner being…the real you that God created… loves and desires truth. The Words of God are pure truth.
The stagnated powerless state of the Christian Body of today indicates that the majority of professed Christians, to include leadership, have lost faith in the truth that God is for them. Instead there is complaints of this and that which are against Christianity. The fear of offending those outside of Christianity has gagged the mouths of the Body from speaking the truth. All types of worldly behaviors and back-pedaling on foundational truths flow through the Body almost daily. Fear of those who are seen has overwhelmed faith in the Words of Him Who is not seen. The enemy, who uses nothing more than deception, then accuses the members of the Body of betraying God and fills the Body with the yeast of belief that God is against them.
Many Christian assemblies resort to actions that are centered on appeasing God or seeking God’s approval. Their revivals consists of singing, dancing, and beseeching God for His favor, sometimes for days. The Christian Body needs only to repent (turn back) and trust in the promise of God that NOTHING or NO ONE can separate those in Christ from His love. The members must reclaim within themselves that God is “FOR” them and never against them. This will revive the power of the Body of Christ. It takes strong cells to make a strong body. Thus it is reasonable to urge the individual members of the Body of Christ to daily claim the promise of God that He is for them. An assembly filled with members who are steadfast in faith in this promise is the conduit that God utilizes to demonstrate His power and reveal Himself to those who are lost.